Super Bowl LVI is just over a week away and the 2022 Pro Bowl events are currently on-going. However, neither are on the front page currently as former Miami Dolphins' Head Coach Brian Flores has filed a class-action lawsuit against the NFL on the 1st of February.
The lawsuit is focused around multiple organizations who Flores claims conducted "sham" interviews with him in order to satisfy the Rooney Rule, as well as the Dolphins' owner Stephen Ross supposedly offering Flores $100,000 to intentionally lose games.
As expected, all accused parties deny these allegations.
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Sham interviews are something current Pittsburgh Steelers' Senior Defensive Assistant and Secondary Coach Teryl Austin claims to know a lot about.
Austin's agent, Eric Metz, claimed earlier this week that Austin in fact was allegedly given a sham interview by the Detroit Lions in 2018 after the team fired Jim Caldwell and was looking for his replacement. Austin was the Lions' defensive coordinator at the time, and Metz claims the Lions already knew they planned to hire Matt Patricia at the time of the interview.
"Bob Quinn knew he was hiring Matt Patricia and used Teryl to comply with the Rooney Rule. Didn't work out well for the Lions. Never should've fired Jim Caldwell."
Quinn was the Lions' General Manager at the time Metz is referring to when talking with the Associated Press.
Austin himself spoke on the issue as well back in October of 2021 as well. He also spoke with Will Graves of AP, the same reporter that Metz spoke with as well.
"Because I think I’ve had 11, I can tell when one was just an [expletive] interview and I could tell when I was really in it... And so to me, that’s kind of worth it."
Needless to say, Austin can tell if interviews are legit or not by this point as he has been a highly desired interview candidate throughout his career. The closest it appears he came in his past to landing head coaching job was in 2017. He was rumored to be a finalist to the Los Angeles Chargers job along with the chosen candidate, Anthony Lynn.
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Regardless if the allegations above are true from Flores or Metz, it is clear by this point that the Rooney Rule needs adjusted, fixed, or flat out replaced.
Not too long ago there were eight minority Head Coaches in the NFL, but that number has dwindled down to two in 2022 with four vacancies remaining currently.
The spirit of the Rooney Rule was good hearted, and appeared to have its benefits at times. But right now it appears to only be a frustrating process to minority candidates as NFL organizations have their eyes already set on who their next coach is, resulting in wasting both a candidate's and organization's time.
Let us know below what you think of Austin's comments on the Rooney Rule and the situation at hand. Click to comment below!
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